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Microsoft PDC sees Outlook get Pocket Outlook features from smartphones

Users of Microsoft-powered mobile phones will know that Pocket Outlook is a very useful tool, able to pick names and phone numbers out of databases with a minimum of effort. Unfortunately, when it comes to looking up the same data in Outlook on the PC, the software is less impressive.

Today's keynote speech by Bill Gates, at the Professional Developer conference in Los Angeles (the PDC) gave programmers a look at what can be done with the new, "late 2006" version of Windows, Vista (formerly, "Longhorn") - by demonstrating an early version of Office 12.

In particular, the news is bad for the makers of add-in programs like  "Lookout" - a search engine for Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP. This software, and several other software products aiming to do the same thing, has no function except to remedy the appalling inadequacies of Outlook in finding names or addresses or phone numbers. Now that Lookout is owned by Microsoft, rivals will have read the writing on the wall. And it's a safe bet that Lookout is the technology behind the next generation of desktop search tools built into Longhorn.

The next version of Outlook, Gates demonstrated, has instant searching built in - working as quickly and almost as intuitively as Pocket Outlook does on a Pocket PC or smartphone using Windows Mobile.

The good news for LookoutSoft: the next version of Outlook is at least a year away, and quite possibly a good deal more. Longhorn has been "next year" for some time now, and although Gates was able to demonstrate what he called "Beta 1" code in LA, nobody expects it earlier than he is promising - which is more than a year from now.